Like a Boss from the Portland Press Herald Portland Press Herald

On Wednesday, March 6, Portland Press Herald CEO and Publisher Lisa DeSisto interviewed Tate’s Bakeshop CEO, Esi Seng at The Roux Institute at Northeastern University.
About Esi Seng
Esi Seng is a proven, inspirational global leader with more than two decades of accelerating business growth and building high-performing CPG businesses and teams across the globe including Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brazil and the United States.
Currently she is the Chief Executive Officer of Tate’s Bakeshop, the iconic cookie brand that disrupted the category and continues to be one of the fastest growing cookies in the aisle. Before taking on the cookie kingdom, Esi was all about toothpaste as the General Manager for Tom’s of Maine. Here she focused on elevating the Purpose to Purchase model. Under her leadership, Tom’s of Maine, a BCorp, developed the first-of-its-kind recyclable tube toothpaste, which was recognized as one of The Best Inventions of 2020 by TIME Magazine and launched a 100% plastic free deodorant line.
Esi, a Nicaraguan Chinese Immigrant is a proponent of diversity, equity and inclusion and passionate about community-building; She is currently on the board of the United Way of Southern Maine.

Like A Boss is a live Q&A business event where you can hear insightful, first-hand accounts of the realities of running a business. Our CEO and Publisher Lisa DeSisto interviews local CEOs and business leaders for a behind the scenes look at their career paths, the ups and downs of running their businesses and the trends shaping them.
Maine State Director of AARP, Noël Bonam sat down with Portland Press Herald CEO Lisa DeSisto for a conversation at The Roux Institute at Northeastern University on Wednesday, October 18.


Noël Bonam has been AARP Maine’s State Director since July 2021. Before joining AARP, Noël had been the head of The Global Institute, a public benefit organization (with operational hubs in Denmark, India and the US), specializing in social equity, leadership development and organizational sustainability. Before his tenure with The Global Institute, he was the Director for the Bureau of Multicultural Affairs for the State of Maine.
Noël is a graduate of the Senior Executive in State and Local Government mid-career program at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He holds a Master’s in Public Personnel Management from Osmania University and a HR certification in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from Cornell University.
Noël has extensive experience in leadership development, stakeholder engagement, EDI practice, and civic leadership. He is currently serving a two-year term on the Global NGO Executive Committee (United Nations), and he is a Commissioner for the Maine State Housing Authority. He is a visual and performing artist when he is not at work.

President of The Boulos Company, Jessica Estes sat down with Portland Press Herald CEO Lisa DeSisto for a conversation at The Roux Institute at Northeastern University on Tuesday, April 4.

President and CEO of Central Maine Power, Joe Purington sat down with Portland Press Herald CEO Lisa DeSisto for a conversation at The Roux Institute on Wednesday, March 1.
About Joe Purington
Joe Purington was appointed President and CEO of Central Maine Power (CMP) in September 2021. CMP serves approximately 646,000 electricity customers in an 11,000 square-mile service area in central and southern Maine. The appointment brings Purington home to Maine and to CMP where he began his career in utility operations.

President of Baxter Brewing, Jenn Lever joined Portland Press Herald CEO Lisa DeSisto for a conversation at The Roux Institute on October 19, 2022
Jenn is an Auburn, Maine native who graduated from Edward Little High School in 2004, and then attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges, earning a BA in Economics and Sociology. In 2008, Lever ignited her career in the Food & Beverage Industry when she accepted a Warehouse Supervisor role with Pepsi Co. Her upward trajectory included successive leadership positions that took her from New York to Virginia, before returning to Maine in 2014, where she worked for three years in fresh cut vegetable processing with the Curran Company, later Growers Express. She left the role as President to take on a Director of Operations position with Baxter Brewing in 2017 and in September of 2019 she was promoted to President of Baxter Brewing. In her very first year as President, she led Baxter Brewing through the COVID-19 pandemic, launching a successful rebrand and expanding distribution while keeping the health and safety of her staff at the fore.

Don Perkins has served as GMRI‘s President/CEO since 1995. Don works with GMRI’s staff, board, and external partners to drive GMRI’s evolution as a strategic science, education, and community institution that serves the Gulf of Maine bioregion and to scale GMRI’s impact beyond.